Dr Manfred Blum

Physician, Scientist, Teacher, Holocaust Survivor, Beloved Family Man. Manfred Blum, MD was born March 13,1932 in Frankenau, Germany to Hugo and Jettchen Blum. At the dawn of the Holocaust and under specific and severe duress, Manfred’s father Hugo precipitously fled Germany for North America, followed thereafter by his Wife Jettchen and their two sons, Manfred and Ernest. Upon their arrival in America in 1934, the family had no accumulation of funds, few possessions, and no ability to communicate in English. Eventually settling in The Bronx, Manfred’s parents worked honorably and tirelessly to earn a living in entry-level manual labor ‘trades’ while they focused their energies on the achievement of the American Dream for their two children.

Complementing each others’ different personalities and strengths, Manfred and Ernest shared a bond of closeness that was burnished through shared experiences of holocaust and hardship,

immigration, and family and cultural influence. Ernest, who pre-deceased Manfred, enjoyed a

successful career in business and real estate, while Manfred forged a path in medicine.

A graduate of the Bronx High School of Science, Manfred next attended New York University as

an undergraduate and subsequently also earned his medical degree from NYU School of

Medicine, where he would focus the next sixty years of his professional career. Upon graduation

from medical school, Blum completed his internship in Medicine at Bellevue Hospital and then

Residencies at both Montefiore and NYU, followed by a Fellowship in Endocrinology at

Harvard Medical School / Beth Israel Boston. Achieving the rank of Captain, Blum served with

distinction as a physician in the US Army. While on Active Duty service, Blum was stationed in

South Korea during the aftermath of the Korean Conflict, where he was appointed Chief of

Medicine at Seoul Military Hospital.

As a young physician, Dr. Blum was drawn to complex medical conditions, and

his practice concentrated on the emerging field of endocrinology, eventually with an exclusive

sub-specialty concentration in thyroid disease. Blum was a tenured Professor of both Medicine

and Radiology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. He took great pride teaching medical

students, Residents and Fellows at NYU and Bellevue. Blum was also a research scientist,

pioneering a variety of investigatory studies to better understand physiology and

pathophysiology, as well as inventing novel diagnostic and therapeutic modalities. His

colleagues at NYU noted that Dr. Blum's “laboratory pioneered and improved imaging

techniques including isotope scanning, ultrasonography, and ultrasound-guided fine-needle

percutaneous aspiration biopsy. Dr. Blum was among the earliest investigators of thyroid

ultrasonography in the 1970's and together with students, residents, and fellows he developed

novel and clinically useful approaches to thyroid imaging, publishing 21 papers, 3 editorials, 11

textbook chapters, and 18 oral presentations at national meetings about this subject, among more

than 90 publications about other Endocrine and Nuclear Medicine subjects.”

While Dr. Blum contributed significantly to the advancement of modern medicine, he also served in

a variety of medico-administrative and leadership roles at NY. Without question though, Dr. Blum

was first a healer, spending countless time with his patients at NYU, Bellevue and the Manhattan

VA. As a Board Certified Attending Physician, Blum took great pride in his diagnostic skills

and his substantial command of medicine and science, and he felt privileged to care for his

patients. Dr. Blum was an ‘old school’ doctor, dispensing ample amounts of time, examination,

reflection, counsel, care and patient education. Consideration was never given as to the stature

of a patient, nor their ability to pay. Dr. Blum was on a variety of top tier medical journal advisory

boards and was a member and or leader in numerous professional associations such as: the

American Thyroid Association, the Endocrine Society, the American College of Clinical

Endocrinology, the American College of Nuclear Medicine, the American Medical Association,

and he was a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the NY Academy of Medicine. He was a frequent guest professor at institutions across the US and abroad.

Dr. Blum was bilingual (English and German) and also spoke conversational Spanish. He was a

craftsman who loved to build and fix things and he was proficient with carpentry, plumbing,

masonry and electric work. Above all professional accomplishments, Manfred Blum was most

proud of his family. Dr. Blum is survived by his wife of 63 years, Linda. They were inseparable

from the time they first met in Boston, Massachusetts, and the pair stayed together, through thick

and thin, even during those military years in Seoul, Korea. They are an example of enduring

love and devotion. Dr. Blum was so proud of his children Leslie Blum, MD (and her husband David

Cziner, MD) and Daniel Blum (and his wife Tracey). Manfred Blum will be remembered as a

doting grandfather to Jonathan Cziner (and wife Emily Levin), Michael Cziner, Sarah Cziner,

Elizabeth Blum and Andrew Blum. Through his decades of research and pioneering techniques,

his education of so many doctors in training, his care for many thousands of patients, and his

indelible love for his family, Blum leaves an enduring legacy that is both uncommon and

consequential.